Hidden Pride

Hidden Forms of Pride –

And What to do About Them

 

My text today comes from Genesis 11. It’s the story about the Tower of Bable. Listen please as I read. As always, you have the text in your handout:

 

“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

 

We could unpack this text and spend a lot of time talking about the truths embedded in this section of Genesis; But for today, I want us to focus on the motive of these men of Babel for building that tower. It was this: “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.”

 

Their motive? Pride. Plain, simple, clear, uncomplicated. Pride.

 

But as I prepared this message, I discovered something about myself that I’d not realized was so deeply buried in my heart. And what is that? Yes – pride.

 

It is as Jeremiah warned: (17:9) “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” And the Psalmist prayed: (Psalm 19:12) “Who can discern their own errors?”

 

And, listen – If I have been able to hide my sinful pride from myself, it’s possible some of you here might be doing the same thing. So, I bring this text to our attention for our own personal consideration and thought. After all, we want, as Paul urged Timothy, to “discipline [ourselves] for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7)

 

We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at what it means to ‘discipline ourselves for godliness.’ As faithful followers of Christ, we want to pay close attention to St John’s plea to us in his first epistle: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

 

Christian – we know intuitively that we ought to walk as He walked. We know intuitively that we ought to adjust our lifestyles to reflect His. And we know from the Scriptures that God calls us to discipline ourselves for godliness, to purify ourselves as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and perfector of our faith.

 

I would guess the average age in this sanctuary circles around 75 years old. And at our stage in life, it will come as no surprise when I remind us that ‘pride’ will destroy us. It ruins relationships. It destroys families. It will eventually take one’s life. We’ve seen it happen to others in our years of experience, and some of us can sadly testify how it has ruined our own lives in the past.

 

As we have seen already in these early chapters of Genesis, pride was at the root of Eve’s sin when she ate from the forbidden tree. She believed Satan’s lie that she’d become like God. Pride was the reason Cain, out of jealousy, killed his brother, Abel. Pride seduced Lamech to boast about killing a young boy for wounding him and a man for striking him. In Babel, it was pride that motivated them to build a tower, so they’d make a name for themselves.

 

And don’t we all know that it is pride that keeps people from the Savior? For good reason the Lord warned His listeners: (Mark 2:17) “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”? If we like to think of ourselves as virtuous, as moral, as worthy of God's pleasure, if we’re too proud to admit that our sins – ANY of our sins – are worthy of eternal damnation, then we’ll never admit to ourselves – or to God – that we desperately need a Savior.

 

Solomon warned: (Proverbs 16:18) “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Several centuries later, another Jewish writer wrote these wise words of sober warning: “Pride is like a fountain pouring out sin, and whoever persists in it will be full of wickedness.” (Sirach 10:13, GNT).  

 

As damnably dangerous as pride is, I think its subtlety is sometimes equally hard to spot. Why is that?  Well, as Jeremiah reminds us in that text I quoted a few minutes ago, our hearts are more deceptive than all else. As a result, pride distorts our spiritual eyesight, so much so that we don’t realize the Lord’s warning to the Christians in the church at Laodicea also applies to us: (Revelation 3:17-19) “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me . . . . eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent.”

 

Those in the city of Babel built their tower because they wanted to make a name for themselves. But we should be careful about pointing fingers at them, and others, who let pride rule their lives and lifestyles. We should be careful about doing so because it is just as likely that we are expertly hiding from ourselves the same sins. Our pride – hidden or not-so-hidden – might not manifest itself as openly as those in this 11^th chapter of Genesis, but the results of our pride, if left unchanged in our hearts, will lead to the same result of judgment.

 

My research for this message led me to a number of online sites that list some attitudes we might hold that give evidence of unhealthy pride. I’ve limited the list to only thirteen – a baker’s dozen. I’m including them in your handout so you can review them yourself later on.

 

1. Are we critical of others – for example, the way they speak, the way they dress, the way they eat, their backgrounds, their schooling (or lack of it), and so forth?

2. Do we worry how others think of us more than how God thinks us?

3. Do we think we know God as well as we need to know Him?

4. Do we think we know the Bible as well as we need to know it?

5. Do we usually reject the honest criticism of others?

6. Do we neglect the genuine physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial needs of others when we are able to assist?

7. Do we usually need to be the focus of attention?

8. Are we often jealous of others?

9. Do we justify and rationalize our sins against God instead of repenting?

10. Are we reluctant to apologize to others when we’ve sinned against them?

11. Are we easily offended, angered, or get our feelings hurt?  

12. Are we reluctant to accept the help of others – whether practical or spiritual?

13. Do we spend undue attention, money, and effort to avoid the appearance of aging?

 

As I said earlier, pride is such a slithery sin that easily hides itself in our hearts under the cover of self-rationalization and self-deception. But Jesus deserves far better than our cover-ups, doesn’t He?

 

I’ve told some of you of my own recent battle against my pride. It happened last October when I was walking our two dogs by our neighbor’s house. He was sitting on his porch waiting for me. When I passed, he ordered me to pick up the dog excrement someone had left on the grass by his curb. I told him it wasn’t from my dogs, but he insisted it was. He then stood up, walked toward me and again ordered me to pick up the mess near his curb.

 

That’s when my anger started boiling up, and in my early days I’d have actually gotten into a fistfight with the guy – over what? A pile of dog excrement and my offended pride?

 

Long story short, we settled the issue on a positive note when he realized I was telling the truth about my dogs. But my point is this: I had for DECADES successfully hidden and rationalized my pride that results in being easily angered. But on that day in October of last year, God revealed to me how my pride is so very close to the surface – and how that pride is not only wrong, it is sinful.

 

The Holy Spirit revealed to me once again that I desperately need a change in my heart. I’m a Christian, one who is supposed to follow AND act like Christ. And as a Christian I represent Jesus Christ to a world fatally diseased by sin. What kind of a testimony for Christ would I have been if I’d let my pride-driven anger bring us to a fistfight?

 

And, by the way, what kind of testimony for Christ would YOU be if you let your own pride-driven anger or jealousy, or negative criticism and gossip bring you to unkind words toward someone sitting at another table in the dining room?

 

Christian, we simply CANNOT be – we MUST NOT live with the attitude popularized by the Sammy Davis, Jr song: “I Gotta be Me.”

 

“Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong/Whether I find a place in this world or never belong/I gotta be me, I've gotta be me/What else can I be but what I am.”

 

Christian – don’t fall for that demonic tripe. We gotta be what GOD created us to be – and that is the image of Jesus.

So, how do we successfully overcome that slippery sin that shows up in multiple ways? It is to that question that I now devote the remainder of this message. And it is to that question that I offer some recommendations that I believe can guide us closer toward the holy lifestyle we all want.

 

First: If your conscience has been pricked by any of the things I just listed in this baker’s dozen, then the first thing to do is to thank God for that revelation. Thank God that He’s opened your eyes to how the many different forms of pride have infected your heart – as they have infected mine, for unless He shows us the SPECIFIC areas of our lives where we offend Him, how can we repent and seek His cleansing and change?

 

Which brings us to the second recommendation as to how we can walk more intimately with Christ in the holy lifestyle we all want. And that recommendation is this: Once He shows us the specific forms of pride that have hidden themselves in our hearts, we must then ask the Holy Spirit to do whatever it takes to change our hearts. 

 

Whatever. It. Takes.

 

Do not expect this to be an easy thing to do – to LET God do whatever is necessary to change our hearts. Our flesh will immediately and steadily argue and fight against it. As the apostle recognized in his letter to the Christians at Rome: (Romans 8:6-8) “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

 

But those who are SERIOUS about pleasing God, for those who are SERIOUS about letting Him root out sin in our lives in whatever form it may take, then fighting against our fleshly nature is something in which we must persevere.

 

Some of you might remember the lyrics of this song – lyrics which speak directly to this point of letting God change our hearts:

 

There’s a voice calling me from an old rugged tree/And it whispers, “Draw closer to Me/Leave your world far behind/There are new heights to climb/And a new life in Me you will find”/For whatever it takes to draw closer to You, Lord/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/And whatever it takes to be more like You/That’s what I’ll be willing to do.

Take the dearest things to me/If that’s how it must be to draw me closer to You/Let my disappointments come/Lonely days without the sun/If in sorrow more like You I’ll become/I’ll trade sunshine for rain, comfort for pain/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/For whatever it takes for my will to break/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/That’s what I’ll be willing to do.

 

Am I critical of others? Then I need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to ‘ping’ my conscience every time I slip into that form of pride. Am I jealous of others – their successes, their popularity, their appearance, their ‘whatever’?  Then I need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to root out that form of pride from my heart. Am I more concerned about how others think of me than how God thinks of me? Am I generally reluctant to let people know I need help? Am I easily offended by others?

 

Christian! How many of the things in that Baker’s Dozen list of evidences of pride apply to you? Quite a few apply to me. OH! How we so desperately and urgently need the Holy Spirit to ping our conscience every time we fall short of His holiness! Whatever in that list applies to us – we need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to do whatever it takes to make us more like Jesus.

 

Those who built the tower of Babel did so “to make a name” for themselves. But the Lord Jesus came to make a name – so to speak – for His Father. For example, here is John 12:27-28a: “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”

 

Pride – in whatever form it takes – if we let it remain unconverted by the Holy Spirit – pride will damage us and our relationships. It might even kill us. That is why it is GOOD when the Holy Spirit reveals to us our hidden sins. In so doing He gives us the opportunity to repent and give it to our God for cleansing.

 

I close this message with a text from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi: (Philippians 2:3-8) “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

 

Oh, may God the Holy Spirit continue to mold us more and more perfectly into the image of Christ. Amen.

So, It Begins

 “And so, it begins.” 

I wonder if that’s what God thought – speaking, of course, only with human language and understanding – I wonder if that’s what God thought when Eve ate the forbidden fruit and then gave it to her husband.

I don’t think God was angry as He watched it happen. I think he was devastated – as devastated as any loving father would be to watch his toddler run into the street and get struck by a truck. 

“And, so, it begins.” 

Death was not the only thing that began in that Garden – not just physical death, but eternal death – eternal for so many who would come after Adam and Eve. 

Death. Disease. Suffering. Anguish. Loneliness. Despair. Loss. Tears that last a lifetime. So, it began. 

Yes, God knew what He would do to fix it. To redeem it. To restore sinful men and women to Himself. But at the same time, He also knew that very, very few would return to Him. He knew most would die cursing His name, ignoring even His final call to them for repentance. He knew most would ignore His final plea to return to Him who loves them, loves them even to their last breath.

And so, it began. Under the tear-filled and watching eyes of the One who created them with so much love and compassion, it began.

Reader, do you know God loves you? I mean, passionately, sacrificially loves you. Do you know that?

That’s an important question. Please stop reading this for a moment and think about that question.

And do you know He will love you to your last breath? Do you know He caressed you at each moment of your formation in the womb, all the while hoping (again to use human language) – hoping that before you took your last breath, you would turn your eyes towards Jesus and call him your Lord, Savior, Master, and King? Hoping that you would devote yourself to Him for as many years, months, or minutes you still have left to breathe.

Do you know He loves you?

Oh, I so very much pray you do.

Yom Kippur -- Forgiven!

 The Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur – ‘The Day of Atonement’ – falls on different days each fall. That’s because the holy day – like Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday (Easter) – all follow the lunar calendar and not the solar calendar.

 

This year, Yom Kippur falls on Saturday, October 12, but I decided to speak today about Yom Kippur because today is very close to the 52-year anniversary when I prayed a prayer of repentance to the God I knew very little about. But it was that prayer that eventually brought me to this place today, 52 years later, at Ashwood Meadows.

 

I’ve preached this sermon before. Some of you might remember it. If you do, that’s a good thing because repetition is a good way to learn and retain information. As St Peter wrote to his readers (2 Peter 1:12-15): Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”

 

And THIS information that I’m about to share with you is pretty important.

 

The Jewish Day of Atonement is the highest holy day in the Jewish faith. It’s the day when Jews – even non-observant Jews – call to mind their sins; It’s a day when many Jews fast and pray and make appeal to God for forgiveness of their sins.

The holy day has its roots in the Books of Moses, specifically the 16^th and 17^th chapters of Leviticus. On Yom Kippur the high priest received two sacrificial animals from the people. One he slaughtered, catching its blood in a basin, and then sprinkled it on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. As some of you know, the Ark of the Covenant was a gold-lined box kept in the special room in the wilderness Tabernacle – and later in the Temple. The special room in both the Tabernacle and the Temple was called the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest could enter that room, and only once a year, bringing with him the blood of the sacrificial animal.

 

It's important that we know the name of the lid of the Ark was called the “Mercy Seat.” The Hebrew word for Mercy Seat translates to the Greek word used by the New Testament writers – propitiation. The Hebrew and Greek words mean, “to a make atonement for, to remove sins and the associated judgment for those sins.” The word carries the idea of appeasing God’s wrath against the sinner because of his or her sins.

 

On Yom Kippur the high priest also took to himself a second sacrificial animal. He placed both his hands on its head and transferred to it all the sins of the people. The ‘scapegoat’ (as it was called) was then led out into the desert, never to be seen again. 

 

In other words, God was not only covering the people’s sins with the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, but He was also showing them He was removing their sins from their midst by the sacrificial animal sent out to the wilderness – or as the Psalmist tells us in psalm 103, God removed the penitent’s sins “as far as the east is from the west.”

 

We who are familiar with Yom Kippur AND the scriptures of the New Covenant – I’ll get to that New Covenant in a moment – those who know of Yom Kippur and the New Covenant understand the Day of Atonement was a picture of what God would do on Good Friday when He placed the sins of the world on the crucified Messiah. Jesus filled the role of the sacrificed animal when He spilled His blood on the cross to cover our sins. AND Messiah Jesus filled the role of the scapegoat who took our sins as far from us as east is from the west.

To those of you who remember that wondrous prophetic passage in Isaiah 53, written 700 years before Jesus was born, you will immediately recognize the connection: “(Isaiah 53:5-6) “But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (21^st Century KJV)

And those of you familiar with the Bible will also recognize the connection between Yom Kippur in Leviticus, along with the promise of atonement in Isaiah’s prophecy – you’ll also see the connection with God's promise in Jeremiah of a New Covenant – a New ‘Testament.’ Here is that promise in the 31^st chapter of his Biblical book:

 

(Jeremiah 31:31-34) “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke . . . But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people . . . for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

 

Focus a moment on that last clause: “I will remember their sin no more.” 

 

That means YOUR sin, my sin – everyone whose sins are atoned for by the bloody sacrifice of the Lamb of God – Messiah Jesus – God remembers our sins ‘no more.’

 

That’s one reason the idea of Purgatory is so conspicuously wrong. The penitent Christian has nothing to fear of being punished after death for sins God has forgotten.

 

God's incomprehensible mercy displayed on Yom Kippur is a picture of the incomprehensible mercy He would display some 1300 years later on Good Friday. Yom Kippur and Good Friday are evidence that God knows our sin-nature makes it utterly impossible to free ourselves from the penalty of our sins – that penalty being eternal separation from God and eternal death.

 

“The wages of sin,” God warns us through St Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome, “the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

 

I want now to give you a personal illustration of how sin is so entwined with our nature that only God Himself can free us. I do this to illustrate not only MY problem with sin, but to also illustrate HUMANITY’S problem with sin:

 

The reason I said at the beginning of my message today that I just passed my 52-year anniversary since my original plea to God for mercy is because I go back in my memory to Yom Kippur in 1972. The holy day fell on September 18 of that year. I was sitting in my navy barracks in San Diego, thinking about my Jewishness, and my relationship with God. And the thought suddenly dropped into my mind of what I had done exactly one year earlier on Yom Kippur 1971.

 

I’d awaked on that day feeling badly that I was not a good Jew. And so, since it was Yom Kippur, I decided to change my life. And to prove to God I was earnest about my decision, I planned to fast and pray – and start living a holy lifestyle. And I did fine all morning. But then my girlfriend unexpectedly rang the doorbell. It wasn’t long before we ended up in bed.

 

That memory of Yom Kippur 1971 now haunted me on Yom Kippur 1972. And I asked myself how I could be so unable to live a holy life devoted to God for even a few hours?

 

Just a few HOURS?

 

I have since learned that when God opens our eyes to our sins, we do one of three things. We ignore what He shows us. Or we make excuses for our sins. Or we acknowledge to Him our sins and beg His forgiveness.

 

What I did on that day in 1972 was to pray a very simple – but very heart-felt prayer. I even wrote the prayer in my journal: “Oh, God. Please, God, forgive me my past sins, and look with tolerance on my future sins.”

 

Yom Kippur 1971 convinced me I could not consistently live a godly lifestyle, not even for 24 hours. In 1972, the memory of bedding my girlfriend on the most holy day of my Jewish faith convinced me I was undeniably trapped by sin. I could only hope when I prayed that simple Yom Kippur prayer in my navy barracks that God would be kind enough to forgive me.

 

And – He was.

 

A few months later, on December 25, 1972, He showed me Jesus had become my atonement, my sacrificial Lamb. He was the One on whom the Father placed ALL my iniquities. Jesus was – and IS – my Jewish Messiah. It was in Jesus that God forgave my moral failures – not only the one on Yom Kippur 1971, but He would forgive ALL my sins. Every last one of them. The small ones and the monstrous ones. In Messiah Jesus, who died as the atonement for my sins – I could be eternally forgiven, cleansed, and made right with God.

 

But this message is really NOT about me. I use my story only to bring home to YOU to message that my story is about YOU. It’s about anyone willing to admit to God that they’re trapped in sin, that they need a Savior, they need an Atonement for their sins. They need someone who can appease God's wrath toward them for their sins.

 

God did not turn me away when I came to Him in humility. And neither will He turn away anyone who comes to Him for forgiveness. Anyone.

 

Jesus said it again and again: He came for sinners. He did not come for the self-righteous. He did not come for those who think they don’t need His forgiveness. You might remember the story Jesus told of the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble sinner. Listen to this story Jesus told to some who thought they were doing okay with God, that they didn’t need to repent like other people. You’ll find the story in Luke 18:10-14.

 

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

Jesus came for those who recognize their utter insufficiency to live an abundant and full life apart from God. Many of you might remember Simon and Garfunkel’s song, “I Am a Rock.” Here are some of the lyrics:

“I've built walls; A fortress deep and mighty; that none may penetrate . . . I am a rock. I am an island. “I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock. I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries.”

 

Jesus came for people who LIVE songs like that, but who do not WANT to live like that any longer. That surely is one reason Jesus says to all of us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

 

Now let me also say this. Jesus said His yoke is easy – but it is still a yoke. He said His burden is light – but it is still a burden. Why is it a yoke and a burden? Because following Messiah Jesus as LORD of our life was never meant to be easy. And I’m here to tell you that radio, television, and pulpit preachers who say – or even HINT that it is easy – they’re liars, false teachers, blind shepherds leading blind congregations.

 

The faithful Christian life is NOT easy. Jesus warned, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.  (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

You and I do not have to look any further than our own mirrors to know what the Bible says about living faithfully for Almighty God is true when it tells us it’s a hard walk. And don’t expect it to get easier as we get older. That’s also why the Lord Jesus told us repeatedly that only those who persevere will receive the crown of life. (See Revelation chapter 2-3),

 

Listen! Jesus is our Yom Kippur atonement, given to us by the Father, so that those who walk in darkness, who are confused, who are unsure of the correct path toward the Celestial City may find IN HIM, and ONLY in Him, that path.

St. Matthew tells us that when Jesus settled in Capernaum He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a Light dawned.” (Matthew 4:16)

And what did Jesus, the Light of the world do when He settled in Capernaum? How did He direct the people OUT of their darkness and into His light? Matthew tells us: From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:16-17)

Listen! God's Truth is both hard in its reality and sharp in its clarity. The Holy Spirit warns us against listening to teachers and preachers who tickle the ears of their listeners with words they want to hear instead of words they NEED to hear:

 

As I originally prepared this message several years ago, I came across this word of warning by a mid-20th century preacher, A W Pink (d.1952). What he said reads like something any of the New Testament writers said:

 

“To turn away from the lifeless preachers and publishers of the day may involve a real cross. Your motives will be misconstrued, your words perverted, and your actions misinterpreted. The sharp arrows of false report will be directed against you. You will be called proud and self- righteous, because you refuse to fellowship empty professors (i.e. false Christians). You will be termed censorious and bitter if you condemn in plain speech the subtle delusions of Satan. You will be dubbed narrowminded and uncharitable, because you refuse to join in singing the praises of the ‘great’ and ‘popular men’ of the day.”

“More and more, you’ll be made to painfully realize that the path which leads to eternal life is narrow and that few there are who find it. May the Lord be pleased to grant to each of us a hearing ear and an obedient heart [and] take heed to what [we] hear and read.”

 

Yom Kippur is a good day – as good as any day of the year – to confess your sins to God and to ask His forgiveness through and by and with the sacrificial blood of Jesus. And even if you’ve asked those things of God in the past, today is still a good day to do it again. I repeatedly ask God to forgive me and to cleanse me of my many daily sins. And I hope you are actively doing the same.

 

And this is still His promise to all who humbly ask His forgiveness: (1 John 1:8-9) “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

Thanks alone to our God our Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

Judas and Repentance

 I just finished Matthew’s gospel, and as I got to this text in the 27^th chapter, I stopped for a few moments to reflect on the scene: “Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!”  (Matthew 27:3-4)

 

If you know the rest of the story, a very remorseful Judas went out and hung himself.

 

Did you ever wonder what would have happened if Judas had not repented to the wrong people, but instead repented to the One whom he betrayed?

 

If you have even an iota of doubt as to what Jesus would have done for Judas, then that might explain why you still have doubts about Christ’s forgiveness after you repented to Him of your sins.

 

OF COURSE, Jesus would have forgiven Judas. There should be no doubt whatsoever about that. So, listen, please. This is important:

 

Jesus forgave Peter for denying three times that he knew Him. And the Lord forgave Saul (later known as the apostle Paul) who at one time ravaged the fledgling Church, dragging men and women off to prison and tried to force them to blaspheme Christ (see Acts 26:11). And Christ’s mercy has continued through the era of Church history, to this present moment.

 

OF COURSE Jesus would have forgiven Judas if he’d repented to the right Person. And of course, of course, of course – Jesus will forgive ME and YOU and anyone else who repents to Him and to Him alone.

 

Murderer? Denier of God? Adulterer? Blasphemer? Fornicator? Read what God promised the penitent sinners in Corinth: “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

 

Listen, please! No sin is so deep that Christ’s mercy and forgiveness is not infinitely deeper.

 

But Satan wants us to believe that Christ’s atoning blood is insufficient to cleanse our sins – especially our darkest sins. Don’t listen to the devil. Remember what Jesus said of him: “Whenever he [Satan] speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44b).

 

Yes, Judas’ sin was a horrible, horrible act of betrayal. But when he realized his sin, he repented to the wrong people. And THAT was his undoing.

 

Please, don’t YOU do that. Whatever sin it is that troubles you, whatever is that sin which you believe is beyond Christ’s forgiveness and mercy – listen once more to what God promises you: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

 

So? Will you believe God? Then what are you waiting for? Repent – tell God you are so very sorry for what you have done. Ask His forgiveness. And then immediately thank Him for that forgiveness.

 

He will NEVER break His promises.

 

Never.